FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Football fans keep watching as the Patriots keep winning. New England captured their sixth straight win of the season on Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts in what was the second-highest rated "Sunday Night Football" game ever in the Boston regional market. The win, which was the Patriots' third straight by 22 points or more, garnered a 40.0 average household rating and 58 market share, trailing only their home win against Green Bay on Dec. 19, 2010, which drew a 42.6 rating and 62 market share. Patriots-Colts was also the No. 1 ranked show in the Boston market for the week, averaging 1,486,500 viewers.
Nationally, the highly anticipated matchup of AFC division leaders posted a 13.6 household rating and 21 market share and averaged 17.7 million viewers, easily earning NBC the top spot in primetime. Fittingly, the top national markets for the game were Boston, Indianapolis (37.1/54) and Providence (30.2/44), with Las Vegas (19.2/29) and San Diego (17.1/30) rounding out the top five. The high marks for San Diego figure to be much higher in Week 14, when the Patriots head west to face the Chargers on Dec. 7 for their final scheduled appearance on "Sunday Night Football." The Patriots seemingly relish the spotlight of Sunday night, as they are 2-0 this season on NBC and 4-1 in their five highest-rated games on "Sunday Night Football." This week's win at Indianapolis was also New England's highest-rated away game ever on "Sunday Night Football," and the only road game among their five most-watched Sunday night games.
The Patriots return home to Gillette Stadium to take on the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Nov. 23. at 1:00 p.m. It will be the first early kickoff game for New England in nearly a month, as their last 1:00 p.m. start time was back on Oct. 26, when they defeated the visiting Chicago Bears 51-23. Joe Buck will call play-by-play with Troy Aikman providing color commentary and Erin Andrews reporting from the sideline for FOX's featured game of the week. The game can be seen locally on Boston FOX affiliate, WFXT Channel 25.
